FALL and WINTER 2003 Issue #14 $5 95

1 074470 8,51-6 IN THE HEART op THE BEAST PUPPET THEATRE For 29 years... In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre has been using water, flour, newspaper, paint, and imagination to tell stories that explore and celebrate the human experience and the wonders of the natural world.

This year, in addition to our 30th Annual MayDay Parade and Festival on Sunday, May 2,2004, we're producing original, company- generated plays for both family and adult audiences during November 2003 to March 2004.

We will also teach puppetry and pageantry to students and teachers, teenagers and youth, b and community members in our · neighborhood and throughout Minnesota through our School and Community Residencies, Small and Large Touring Shows and Programming for Youth.

Check our website for more detailed information at hobt.org.

Join us for another exciting season!

IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST PUPPET AND MASK THEATRE 1500 East Lake Street · Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407 · (612) 721-2535 · www.hobt.org Editor Andrew Periale ~UPPETRY ~NTERNATIONAL 56 Woodland Drive film & media Strafford, NH 03884 the puppet in contemporary theatre, [email protected]

issue no. 14 Designer/Assistant Editor Bonnie Periale The Editor's Page 2 Editorial Advisor Leslee Asch SEX & GENDER IN PUPPETRY Historian Ritual Sex by Eileen Blitmenthal ...... 4 John Bell Puppet Seduction in Australia bv Jessica Wilson ... 8 Media Review Editor Natalie Undressed by Michael Nelson . 10 Donald Devel Nosteratu in New York . 11 Advertising Turtles Who Love Too Much bu Warner Blake. 12 Reay Kaplin Madame and Wayland b-V Andrew Periale 13 [email protected] Avenue Q by Rick Lijon 14 Distribution Spooky Puppet Horror Show ... 17 Tricia Berrett Girl Meets Rat by Joan Evans . 18 Advisors Puppets Teach Sex Ed by Donald Deuet . 19 Vince Anthony Norman Frisch Interviews: Meg Daniel Norman Frisch Ronnie Burkett ..20 Stephen Kaplin Paul Zaloom .. 22 Mark Levenson Puppet History Column by John Bell .26 Amanda Maddock Michael Malkin Dassia Posner --- REVIEWS --- Hanne Tierney Amy Trompetter ON STAGE

Don Juan review bv Marnie Tierrie,J 30 Puppetry International is a publication of UNIMA-USA, Inc., American Center of the Barber of Seville review by Hanne Tierney . 32 UNION INTERNATIONALE de la BOOKS MARIONNETTE (known as "UNIMA"). Contemporary Wayang review by Andrew Periale . .34 Board of Directors, UNIMA-USA, Inc. Marionette Making review by Andrew Periale . .36 Founding President JlM HENSON President Marianne Tucker FILM & VIDEO Tricia Berrett Bradford Clark Meet the Feebles review by Justin Kaase .. 37 Carol Epstein-Levy Bread & Puppet Documentary reciew by Andrew Periale .38 Kathy Foley Kuang-Yu Fong Kathee Foran Lynne Jennings UNIMA-USA Production , , i Mary Robinette Kowal Michelle O'Donnell c/o Center for Puppetry Arts Terrie Ilaria, Lillian Meier 1404 Spring Street. NW STEINWAY STUDIO Atlanta. GA 30309 USA Kittery, ME Ex-Officio Board Members 404-873-3089 Anthony* www.unima-usa.org General Secretary Vincent Publications Andrew Periale Bonnie Periale Consultants & Leslee Asch *Councilors Cheryl Henson* Allelu Kurten --1 - Michael Nelson ON THE COVER: Roman Paska* NATIONAL Fashionable frog puppet, from Lia Powell Perry Alley Theatre's Chinese ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS I.isa Rhodes Take-Out Theatre, by Andrew Periale; costumed by Caleb Bart Roccoberton* Fullam . ©1999 This project is supported, iii part, by an award Nancy L. Staub* photo: B Periale i from the National Endowment for the Arts. Web Guru Donald Devet

Editor's Page-

As a freshman theater student, I remember On the topic of human sexuality, going down to Greenwich Village to see Jacques Brel is Alive we observed that there were three principal areas in which and Well at the Village Gate. On the way into the theater, 1 puppets seem to have been used consistently throughout saw a poster for Kumquats, * which was advertised as the history: as a means of transcending narrowly defined gen- "world's first erotic puppet show." 0/1, Calcutta and Hair der roles, as an expression of the artist's sexuality or sexual were playing on Broadway and, as teenagers, we were all politics, and as an acceptable (more or less) way of having tuned in and turned on to the new sexual openness which sex in public. This is fertile ground. and. as always, we are was everywhere apparent: in our music and manner of dress, only able to scratch the surface here, but scratch we do; in ourcinema and theater-in short, in our hippie/free-speech beneath the gaudy plush of muppet tleece we catch the counterculture and all the mainstream outlets which were heady whiff of germination- of rat lust and dragon lotion. ripping off its outer trappings in order to make a buck. The politics of culture aside, though , I was intrigued by the Kwn- That a puppeteer may play characters quats poster, if only because it flew in the face of my as yet of anY gender is such a common notion that it is rudimentary notions of puppetry: Punch and Judy, Howdy often taken for granted. Every now and then it piques our Doody, Bil Baird, Fireball XL5. The fact that sex and pup- interest: " All those female roles in the bunraku theatre are pets did not strike me as a natural and profoundly signifi- played by men- are they gay?' (No. they're not. but it does cant pairing is proof enough of how little I knew about pup- beg the question: why (lre there no women in the com- petry, or, indeed, about humanity itself, which is- deny it as pany?) John Bell considers the significance of gender iden- we might- all about sex. Longtime readers will know that tity in his survey of sex and puppetry throughout history we have waited a long time for this, having previously ex- [page 261. Of all the well known examples of this in recent plored the puppet's relationship to television, propaganda, times, perhaps nowhere has the illusion been more com- spirituality, technology, traditional cultures and so on. But plete than with Wayland Flowers and Madame [page 131. the implacable force of the phallus implicit in Punch's big stick will not be stilled a moment longer- its time has come!

Strange Love, by Perry Alley Theatre with Larry Siegel is made up of three short plays- each dealing with a particular aspect of human relationships. Here, Charles introduces Tempesta to his parasitic conjoined twin, "Junior." Eventually, she ends up in bed with both of them!

photos: Richard Termine PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 3

No doubt artists who've flouted sexual mores There are other ways in which (either openly or not) have used pup- sex and puppetry have come to- petry as a way of expressing their gether over the years- as a teaching tool, for ideas, sensibilities and so on for instance. Gary Friedman has done very valuable many years. Though not a new phe- work in AIDS education in South Africa, and nomenon, a great deal of important Grey Seal Puppets had a program for middle work has been produced by contem- school sex education [page If)]. We also have a porary gay playwright/puppeteers. number of reviews of films, productions and Norman Frisch has interviewed two books- something for everyone! of puppetry's most celebrated artists- Ronnie Burkett, who speaks of his process of maturation front Canada's "bad boy of puppetry" to one of his country's most respected contemporary playwrights [page 201, Paul Za- loom makes a strong case for his gay Punch, and speaks passionately 44 about why "gay" is not synonymous with "queer" Ipage 22].

Puppets seem to be having sex every- Where these days, nowhere more openly (or hilariously) than in Broadway's Avenue Q John Bell considers this We seem, as a nation, to be inca- production, as does the show's puppet designer, Rick Lyon pable of having a frank and open [page 14]. We've included a number of other examples of discussion of human sexuality. recent or current shows in which sex plays a prominent That the desire of many gays and lesbians to marry role: the campy Nofferatu [page 11 ], the haunting Dark at or serve in the military is so contentious should be the Top of the Stairs [ page 8 ], the enchanting Natalie [page proof enough of this. The absolutely shameful 101 and others . Joan Evans also recalls her Rice and prevalence of hate crimes against sexual non-con- Do/ores, a scathing social commentary which she calls formists, the sexual abuse of children, the Catholic "your basic girl meets rat story" [page 18]. Puppets, though, ban against women entering the priesthood, legisla- have been having sex in public view for a long time- in tion against public support of birth control. are just fertility rituals, tales of the gods, and as a way of skirting a few of the many examples of how repressed, fear- taboos. Eileen Blumenthal gives us a sneak peek at her ful and psychically injured we are as a people. Pup- upcoming book in her consideration of the ritual uses of petry is a force for good in this arena. By "holding puppetry, for which there is evidence right back to prehis- the mirror up to nature," our puppet artists allow us torie times [page 4]. to look at our excesses, our phobias, our suppressed desires. insecurities, foibles and occasional tri- umphs, and to give us a good laugh, or a good cry, in the process. And that is how healing begins.

*Directed by Nick Col)pola and featuring the well- reviewed Wayland Flowers and Madame, 1971. Andrew Periale PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

Place: Naked in a Public and people in many parts of the worid had taken to worship- ping the penis. Sculpted replicas honored the blessed organ. Ritual Puppetryand the often depicting it in its most elevated condition. Whereas the activities of the little Paleolithic "Venuses" occurred on a spiritual plane, with no movement visible to humans, the ritual Celebration of Fertility phalluses often appeared in action. According to the 5th cen- tUry B.C.E. Greek historian Herodotus, ancient Egyptians venerated Osiris, a dying-and-rising god associated with fertility, by parading with male puppets that sported prodigious by Eileen Blumenthal dying-and-rising penises. Along with spearheads and scraping stones, our Paleolithic Herodotus also described phallic effigies in Greek fer- ancestors crafted miniature women with bulging bellies tility rites. There, rather than distracting from the main focus and breasts. Plump little statuettes, from ca. 25,000 B.C.E.. with irrelevant body parts. the celebrants paraded carrying have turned up all over Europe. While the precise pur- colossal replicas of erect penises. In fact. through much of pose of these carvings is less obvious than the tasks of history and geography. ritual penises of wood or stone. some Cro-magnon's other paraphernalia, their bulging anatomy of them tree-trunk size, have been venerated and even ani- suggests that they had something to do with fertility. One mated. Usually, these linga are not attached to a body (it scholar* has even shown that their odd proportions re- being widely accepted, apparently, that the penis has a life of semble a very pregnant woman's own top-down foreshort- its own). Free-standing and moving penises of this sort have ened view of her own body. Perhaps these zaftig minia- figured in ceremonies in cultures as widespread as East, Cen- tures modeled the condition of pregnancy in order to bring tral, and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. it about, particu- Finally, constructed figures of males and females dedi- larly if the society cated to fertility do what all types of males and females do to 4 1 had not yet sorted reproduce: They copulate. Typically, their ritual foreplay and/ out birds and bees. or coitus highlight ceremonies meant to insure a bountiful

''Ail Or maybe their job yield- be it of children, livestock, or crops. At weddings in

y''1* , I was protecting a India, forexample, giant "King" und "Queen" puppets asso- pregnancy to term. ciated with sex perform (though not the act itself) to bless the In any case, it couple with fecundity. Among the Yoruba and Fang peoples , 4 // seems likely that of West Africa, anatomically explicit wooden couples are these human-made joined in coitus to engender a plentiful harvest. beings played some At first glance, puppets seem an odd choice to perform role in reproduc- sex since, as inorganic creatures, they have no hormones, or tion. If so, the ex- nerve endings, or libido. And they seem a very odd choice to „ ~ tended family of model creating new life since, technically speaking, they are ]S,Y , puppets and amu- not alive. lets has been mixed But puppets have unique advantages for performing sex up in the business acts. First ofall, in many societies they can engage in graphic of fertility for about sex without the gross violation of mores that live actors do- thirty thousand ing the same thing would commit. Moreover, they will not years. shrink from playing their roles, no matter how intimate or By the first even unseemly. They will not have trysts with audience mem- and tad" millennium B.C.E., bers (a concern of moral authorities in Europe, Japan, fecundity rituals America at various times). .WIL . 'A'# j had homed in on Puppets also, unlike live actors. can be made-to-order sex as the key agent for their roles. They can have perfect, or extraordinary, pe- for making babies, nises. nipples, buttocks, whatever- and need not have dis- / PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL s

tracting extraneous features, such as elbows, ears, whatever. and sex is not even the main feature of their humor, these Also, sex acts and puppet acts both work in tandem with prominent genitalia could be vestiges of a previous port- imagination. so a puppet-sex act gets a whopping double dose. folio that included fertility. As the evolving religion or Puppets are especially apt players for fertility rituals in sense of social decorum made their previous function one important respect. They are involved in the business of obsolete, they reoriented their vocation, while remaining creating li fe. Until the advent of cloning and DNA sequenc- within the shadow-theater world, which straddles ritual ing, puppetry and sex were the ()nly phenomena humans knew and entertainment . that would engender living beings. True, puppetry creates new While the shadow downs may have shifted their life only in the realms of imagination and religious faith, performances of ritual sex away from sex. many ritual- whereas sex literally conceives new organisms. But that dis- sex puppets have kept the sex part and moved away from tinction is not always critical. In many belief systems, corpo- the ritual. This distinction between ritual and entertain- real and spiritual life, the physical and supernatural planes of ment, between performing for humans versus for divine being, interweave into a single, complex reality. audiences, sometimes is absolute, sometimes not. Most Many societies spanning centuries and continents have Punch and Judy professors do not pitch their shows for used puppet sex to model fertility. In one village in northern an audience that includes Jesus. But in many situations, Bali, when the rice is planted, a ten-foot-tall pair of sacred that border is porous- if not totally beside the point. body-puppets (barong landung), made from fertility-promot- Where all elements of life are understood to have both a ing dap-dap wood and sugar-palm stems, perform temple cer- physical and a spiritual presence, puppets' (and other ac- emonies, then copulate in front of the villagers, and finally tors') performances can encompass ritual and entertain- are thrown into a river. Some Balinese harvesting tools made ment. Most Southeast Asian shadow puppets perform for to bundle rice sheaves are carved with the shape of sexually a combined audience of humans and spirits. Addressing explicit couples. In one old ritual in Congo, male and female mainly human specta- puppets with exaggerated genitals were strung, like European tors versus mainly gods 'ligging puppets," on a single taut cord stretched between just amounts to shifting the seated handler's big toes. He slapped a rhythm on his the demographics of :*1 legs, vibrating the cord, and the puppets approached one an- the target audience. ,%4 =3 other until they consummated their act. Puppets with erect- In any case, when ._ 4 able penises, like those Herodotus described in Egypt, con- societies abandon the 19 tinued to play in parts of Europe- including Spain, Portugal ceremonies that pro- ¥ and Hungary- into the twentieth century. And in one particu- vided the occasion for 1**~~ larly colorful New Guinean fertility ritual that Joseph puppet sex, the actors -- Campbell described, men would hold giant prosthetic geni- often retool for secular tals made from bark and pine cones at their crotch and put performances so that them through their paces, miming masturbation and spraying audiences can continue S, 44~ I, (imaginary) semen all over the village and nearby fields. to enjoy them, or to en- Many of the mostpopularIndian, Southeast Asian, and joy the release from so- even North African shadow-puppet clowns may actually be cial restraint that the u *-TvA ,

In Eastern Turkey, some folk plays contain sections virtually identical in form to phallic rituals, but are purely secular. The technique for Congo's jigging fertility dolls became adapted for totally non-ritual puppets and toys, both sexual and non-sexual. Although the ritual veneration of female genitals via puppets is much rarer than male, it does occur. (Puppets with pregnant bellies and large breasts exist in many cul- lures, but not female puppets with prominent genitals. In the puppet world, as in the human world, women often are celebrated as mothers but no one wants to deal with how they got that way.) Some Japanese Dogu figures have oversized genitalia. In Niger, the female partners of humongously hung little male puppets have vulvas as large as buttocks. Whatever ritual links these ladies may once have had, they now perform the act just for pleasure. Which, of course, is why most puppets, like most people, have sex. Still, puppets' role in fertility rituals does highlight their most remarkable trait: their ability to be endowed with life.

Selected bibliography: • Metin And. Karagcjz, Turkish Shadow Theatre, • LeRoy MeDermott. "Self-Representation in Upper Ankara. Dost Yayinlari Publication, 1975. Paleolithic Female Figurines ," Current Anthropo- logy,#37, 1996. • Urs Ramseyer, Art and Culture of Bali. Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1986. • John Emigh, Masked Performances, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996, and personal • J . Tilikisiri , The Puppet Theatre of Asia, Dept. of communication. Cultural Affairs, Ceylon. n.d.

• Henryk Jurkowski , " Eroticism and Puppetry " in • Max von Boehn. Do//s and PLippets, tr. from German Aspects of Puppet Theatre. Puppet Centre Trust, by Josephine Nicol Boston, Charles T. Branford London 1988. A collection of essays. Edited by Company. 1956 reprint of 1932 first printing. Penny Francis.

• Henryk Jurkowski , A History offitropean Pit/,petry, Eileen Bl itine,illial is Professor of Theater Arts at Vol. 1, from its Origins to the End (4 the 19th Mason Gross Sclic,c,1 of the Arts, Rutgers University. Century. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY 1996. She writes frequently about theater. including both live-actor and puppet work. Herforthcoming book, • Olenka Darkowska-Nidzgorski, Marionnettes et THE STORY OF PUPPETS. will be published by Masques au coeur du theatre Africain, Sepia, Saint- Harrx Abrams. Inc. in the.fall OF 2004. Maur, 1998. Dear Readers: If you enjoy Puppetry International magazine , you might be interested in the web site for UNIMA-USA. Go to: www.unima-usa.org 7 The Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts

A laboratory for training and experimentation in the art of puppet theatre

. Janie Geiser, Director

Cal Arts School of Theatre Susan Solt, Dean

Visiting Artists * 1 r have included: Lee Breuer graduate and Pablo Cueto i undergraduate * study available Jane Henson Dan Hurlin

Ken Jacobs

Jennifer Miller

Zaven Pard f4 Roman Paska

Larry Reed

Michael Sommers Cal Arts' 60 acre campus is located 27 miles north of Los Angeles Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355 24700 McBean Mark Sussman For admission: 800-292-2787 (in CA) 800-545-2787 (out of state) Website: www.calarts.edu e-mail: [email protected] Paul Zaloom 8 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL TERRAPIN PUPPET THEATRE

BY JESSICA WILSON

0 1

PUPPET SEDUCTION INTENSIFIES THRILL/FEAR PARADOX

This year, Teri:~pin Puppet Theatre re- developed its production for adult audiences, "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," in Hobart, Australia. "The Dark" is a densely visual piece using marionettes, physical performers, projection, music and text to communicate a multi- layered narrative. In exploring the mind of a woman affected by fear. the piece contains a number of sexual references including a scene where the woman, played by an actress, is seduced by a large, ileshy marionette torso. Because of the sensitive and intense nature of the MARIONETTE SEDUCES WOMAN IN "THE DARK" material. the scene was the product of a photo: Eddie Safank PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 9

bushland. We hear her nervously trying to make a call on her cell phone before she treads into the bush and onto our stage. The dramatic structure is in- formed firstly by the woman's physical journey through the bush land. Memories of her past air trig- gered by fears as she navigates this wilderness.

These memories make up the more significant layer of the work. The memories are distorted and she must try to piece the events together: a sister who disappeared long ago. a father having an affair with aunty, a journey to India in her early 20's. Iii order to continue, she must eventually cross a threshold to a place from which she may not be able to return. The sex scene emerged from our interest at this point in a thrill/fear paradox: her desire to indulge in her terror at where this might DAD AND AUNTY fears and the simultaneous photo: Eddie Safarik take her.

Given that the piece occupied the world ofher mind, in communicating the character's vulnerability we needed to find a way to express the world visually and through action or transformation of imagery. # rather than through her- acting alone. We also wanted her to be confronted culturally. physically and emo- 4*# tionally. The woman is in a delirium towards the climax of the piece when she is enticed into a seduction by a lone limb that caresses her gently: a welcome sensitivity after her difficult journey. As it leaves, she begs it back. It returns but is now a torso; a human sized figure with his legs cut at the knees, a large phallus and flaking skin.

this character needed to be both beautiful CARLA WITH MUM AND SISTER, BRIDIE, IN A FAMILY MEMORY SCENE Visually, and repulsive. We wanted this scene to generate a conflicting emotional response in the audience. Au- dience and critics commented that they felt both challenging and interesting development pro- aroused and horrified at the same time. It was par- cess. The audience's response to the sequence ticularly haunting for the audience that the human led me to believe that it is one of the most et'- was being seduced by the puppet. and by a puppet fective 1 have created in recent years, and so, to that was so beautiful and so menacing at the same accompany the following images, I would like time; physically dominating, yet oddly articulated to share a little of how it all emerged from the by its marionette movements. dramaturgical process. The need to create this image came from the dra- The primary theme of "The Dark" is fear and maturgy of the piece and formed the theatrical cli- the tension that exists when we try to create logi- max of the "The Dark." In exploring an internal jour- cal answers for things we can't understand. The ney and an emotional life, sexuality could not be piece opens with the sounds of a woman ignored. It was really rewarding for us to exploit stranded on a lonely roadside surrounded by the strengths of puppetry and develop a scene of this nature as a p:irt of a dramatic continuum.• IO PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

"Natalie" Undressed by Michael & Valerie Nelson

The play Natalie, presented by Michael & Valerie Nelson's Little Blue Moon Theatre is an original play written for the toy theatre. In the play, a Paris street performer decides to take off her clothes inside her puppet booth during a heat wave. A sudden and unexpected gust of wind blows away her stage, puppets and clothes. This event brings about a change in her art and her love life while catapulting her shows into the public eye. In the photo, Natalie relaxes with her new friend who took her home to get better acquainted after her puppets and clothes blew away. He then helps her to find her puppets and stage (she never does find her clothes) so she can continue the pursuit of her art. The play is one of a series of new works for the toy theatre that celebrate the joys (and quirks) of human sexuality. The plays focus on sexual adventure, romance, seduction, foreplay and (as in the photo) post-coital activities (the actual physical intimacy takes place tantalizingly out of sight behind the folding screen which is then pulled back to reveal the satisfied couple). As toy theatre is an intiniate form of theatre, the Nelsons decided to use the medium to explore human intimacy as a theme. Audi- ences for the shows usually range in number between 15 and 30 (with a maximum of 40) persons. The theme (sex) is timeless, and the tiny, light-hearted performances have proved popular with adult audiences. Theatre-goers are provided with opera glasses. enhancing the natural voyeurism of the theater. • PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL II Wofferatu

The va Mitre tale of Nosferatu exploited the already well-established link between sex and death. In Deb Hertzberg's new production of Mosfera+u, we are invited to see an "expressionistic tale of horror, humor and hysteria." Though less allitera- tive, sex and death are here as well.

"First we see Ellen with The Count closing in on her in the shadows. When he finally appears, she gives herself to him. letting The Count draw the last bit of her life's blood from her neck until dawn's first light burns him to ash. She struggles and then is overcome with passion as she slips closer to death." 5..

This is one possible explanation for the , 4.. 4 :... . .:% .7/ discord in so many marriages- one partner .0#...... I wishes to be consumed with passion, the other aiming for something with more of a future. The romantics in the crowd can live ..:*.:U ,~ ...... :....::.2.'.. out their desire for all consuming passion .*** ... 0 0. ...: .0 :*<., vicariously through such flame-seeking moths as Ellen. Well, let those who take delight in the thought of their bodily fluids being drained by a toothy, bad-boy Romeo and quickly too! I'll go sign up for therapy, photo: Cathy McCullough to the theatre and laugh at a puppet's take on those misbegotten bloodsuckers, then go home and dream of my silver wedding anniversary with my sweet girl (who. come to think of it. keeps her DVD of B ram Stoker's Dracula close to the television at all times... hmmm). -ACP n PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

r-::

Separating the Turtles, 04 6 ---k L Was Napoleon's Conquest of Europe a result of Post-Coital Anxiety ?

The SOUPTALKS began with the idea of staging a war on a tabletop and The first version of this show was pre- 1 chose Napoleon's invasion of Russia for lots of reasons. probably none sented iii my Seattle studio in 199(). in 1993 more important than it would end with a miniature snowfall. :in updated version was presented in At- As l worked on it, there seemed to be a need for a creation story- to lanta, and in 1996 the show was presented explain how everyone ended up here fighting in the snow. And so the at La Marna as part of the Henson Festi- story of the mating turtles playing the part of Adam and Eve giving birth to val. The final live version was presented all of civilization was developed. Further. I tried to describe the Enlight- in 2001 in Seattleand that's the version that enment as the time when the humans pushed apart the it mating parents. is used in the movie finally finished this which seemed to fit with Napoleon 's rep as marking the beginning of na- year. Voice OfThe Turtleclove. the first part tion states. of Memory Of The Whispered Word. So all of this was in place when 1 came across the story told in Durant's The stage action of puppets copu- Agc of Napoleon of the 16 year-old Napoleon wanting to commit suicide lating never failed to get ajoyous reaction after losing his virginity to a Parisian prostitute- something he evidently froni the audience. To further their enjoy- shared with his diary. This gave me an interesting echo of the mating ment of the event. 1 provided small bin- turtles and a dramatic finish to the creation story theme of Part 1. oculars, [either opera or field glasses- de- This final scene then. in which this all takes place. is called "The pending on your point of view], that would Evening News"; and while he and the whore are doing it, the audience also drop down from a grid over the table and sees a Dan Rather cut-out puppet ona small attached with elastic cord that would give TV telling/showing us about the mysteri- the binoculars a happy bounce when re- ous remains of a sea turtle found on a Se- ./ i leased- almost like a dance. The question 1 wanted to preKent to viewers with all this attle beach .,. . Iffit,/1/9,3/1/8/Mialliligral After this, the three inch figure of Na- r/71/r:£*m*Vz"11141'51 was simply- why do we seem to enjoy a poleon leaps out of bed to sing ati operatic , lot of war with our sex'? Could it be. as I duet with Dan Rather. backed by the Cho- 1 511 i li- # / 1 -./ 1 &11 1 suggest iii Part III, that we are all puppets rus of Civilization, about being the great- of history, as Toistoy described the charac- est nation on earth. 1---fi ters of War and Peace'-]

0. .. PUPPETRY INTER NA TIONAL 8 Woig [(Avid -3-10\Ners @vid the Mao[(Ame Fidel/lomevion 104 AndreN Per]Ne

~adame was a tough old broad- tough old broad, though, sarcastic. bawdy. witty. Wayland was there is always an ele- ~ always with her, of course, and we all ment of clownishness to 44*4 knew that he was there. but long before it, perhaps because the # 4'+ his eally 80's TV sitcom. Madame's Transvestite and the Place, in which he was actually kept out Drag Queen both violate 9- of the shot, his presence had ceased to our widely held notion matter. Madame was too big, too vivid: of the human image. she was the star. With puppeis this is not the case, the mask is too The irony is obvious when seen effective. This is cer- from a distance. Wayland was the in- tainly true in Japan's credibly hard- working genius who Ilijigyo jorHn tradition , made that tough old broad tough. We where all female charac- saw him do it. We saw his lips move! It ters are enacted by male didn't matter. Wayland described him- puppeteers and narraton self as "an illusionist," and, like any and it was true of master of close-up magic, he was able Wayland Flowers, who to make us see only what he wanted us looked perfectly elegant to see. in his tuxedo while the bi~assy Madame had her Now, there have been tough old audiences in stitches. ~Vladame, on the other hand, broads before (in fact, the idea for was always Madame: big as life on Madame's character was born in a bar; This is one of the basic truths of stage, bigger even, then afterwards one night Wayland saw someone who puppetry. so plainly stated by Heinrich nothing- wood and cloth packed up in "looked likeasweet littleoldlady until Kleist in his essay Uber das a box until the next show. the bartender got a rise out of her and Marionettentheater, namely, that an ac- she let loose with a stream ofexpletives tor (or, in Kleist's example, a dancer) The puppet ix the character. As a ..."")-Mae West, Sophie Tucker. Phyllis p/ays a character while a puppet is a puppeteer. Wayland was somethingdif- Diller. Of course. they were illusions, character. As brilliantly as Robin Will- ferent from, say, a gay comic or a drag too- stage personae created by soine tal- iarns may have been as Mrs. Doubtfire queen. Over the course of his career he ented women. When a man creates a or Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie (and there created a number of different puppet we saw the joke. as they were both ac- characters, but none resonated with his tors playing actors playing tough old audiences like Madame. With her help, broads), we all knew that, after the he could actually, for a time, be a tough shoot. the mask was coming off and they old broad. were going out to a life quite different from the one we'd just seen.

*Trom "Wayland Flowers and Madame." an essay by Judy Anderson ,For the catalog m an exhibit of the puppeteer's career: presented In' The Center for Ptippetry Arts. Atlanta, 1989. 4 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

We asked Rick Lyon about the reports we'd heard of puppet sex in the new Broadway hit, Avenue Cl, and we received this e-mail:

Subject: Avenue Q Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 From: Rick Lyon

In AVENUE Q, the puppets have sex because people have sex. In WARNING: this show, the puppets engage in all sorts of FULL normal adult behavior, PUPPET NUDITY like getting fired and trying to put relationships together and swearing, and getting drunk and having sex and surfing the internet for e porn, and generally behav- ing like flawed human beings. The one scene that 4 % features naked puppets en gaged in sexual activity can , F hardly be very explicit- af - ter all, these are mouth puppets in the caricatured style you're used to seeing on TV, and they end above what would be the puppet's waist. No genitalia, nothing anatomically accurate. Kate Mon- ster, the female character of the couple, does have breasts, but these, too , are very abstracted and cartoony- besides which, it's very difficult to see her nipples through her thick tan fur (she is a monster, after all). Princeton, the male character, also has only photo: C Rosegg very abstracted upper body detail (including nipples and some pretty nice pecs). If

So what is Slut, who com- the audience really seeing if plains about getting fur in her there is no overt sexual teeth- but that's it. Sex equipment on display? in the world of AVENUE Q is What they're seeing is pretty much just that- sex. two fuzzy little No more, no less. It's cartoony mouth puppets part of the joy and the bumping into each other trauma of being alive, so in various positions the puppets have to deal onstage while the pup- with it, too. peteers are supplying appropriate groans and After some time to reflect, we screams and heavy breath- received another note: ing. It is one of the most obvious examples of the the- I haven't touched on one of atrical conceit of "willing sus- the show's signature numbers, THE pension of disbelief" I've ever wit- INTERNET IS FOR PORN, sung by a blus- nessed. The audience thinks they're tery furry beast named Trekkie Mon- seeing two puppets having sex because ster- but I guess the same basic ideas they IMAGINE it- because the rudimen- apply. People surf the web for porn, tary motions of the puppets and the so why shouldn't a puppet? aural accompaniment suggest the ab- Again, there's nothing explicit stract concept that the puppets are ever shown- we don't see what web- having sex. The audience fills in all sites are being surfed- and there's the details. It's their own brainsful not much explicit language, either of information and opinions about sex (one slangy reference to male geni- that make them laugh and shriek or talia). The audience fills in all feel embarrassed or delightfully the details based on their own know- shocked. And every night in perfor- ledge and opinions about internet mance it does exactly that. pornography. By the way, the fact that Prince- ton, a humanoid, and Kate, a monster, I guess most of the shock value, and are a mixed couple, interspecies even, hence humor (as most humor is based is not overtly exploited in the show. on surprise- behavior that is " inap- There is no discussion of how differ- propriate") comes from the fact that ent sex for a monster puppet might be the style of puppet used in AVENUE Q, from a humanoid puppet. There is one fabric and foam mouth puppets, is so disparaging remark about monster sex irrevocably linked to children's en- made by a humanoid puppet- Lucy The tertainment.

Rick Lyon is the designer of the puppets in Avenue (1 as well as a performer in the show. THE PUPPETRY STORE A Service of Puppeteers of America, Inc.

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4 The Puppetry Store r 302 W. Latham St. Phoenix, AZ 85003

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e,ry Ar,5 producers Jon Ludwig and Bobby Box have been t work for years. including some with compelling sexual imagery. Some of here before , such as the phenomenally entertaining Wrestling Macbeth. x Lady Macbeth shoots "milk"out ofher pointy breasts, soaking the front f milk, in Sati, as Milk, Jon actually changes gender, becoming a woman age. For his part. Bobby Box has covered the subject in both its comic and is Towing the Line consideration of the murder of Harvey Milk. What is it ilk? Not only are they lactose tolerant, they endorse tolerance and sexual id off stage. Here's sonic of the promo for their annual Spooky Puppet

puppets resurrect beefcake and cheesecake as Jon Ludwig, Matt obby Box. Lorna Howley. and other escapees of the local puppet npy comic improv, freaky dance moves and touch-a touch-a, stop- ill-go-blind tunes. Why, It's enough to make Dr. Frank N. Furter t you leave Mummy at borne.

infoe pubbe+.org 18 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

Plot: A woman [Dolores] picks up a rat [Rico]. They go to her place, they have snacks, they dance, they watch TV. they RICO & have sex, and they fight. She wounds him, but he kills her. After all. he is a rat.

The sex in Rico and Dolores is not 719 010 res about sex at all. It involves numbness, not feeling: Dolores, a scantily-clad woman in It 's your basic girl meets rat story... a miniskirt and pumps, struts down the street in search of adate. She waves at men, but they don't wave back. She seduces Rico because she can't be alone. She hates herself for wanting a rat. Dolores returns to her apartment with Rico. They dance together and share a pea- nut. Dolores feels numb and would rather watch TV Rico nibbles at her breast and is drawn to her musky scent. But he is not aroused. He only wants something to eat. and Dolores is garbage to feast upon. Later. he bites off her finger and is temporarily satisfied. Dolores strikes Rico with her red pump and knocks him unconscious. Her fe- tishistic sex object has become an instru- ment of revenge. Alone again and desperate. Dolores changes the channel. She accidentally hits the button for public TV. She watches an operatic murder but misses the point about love. Dolores wants her shoe back. She re- trieves it from Rico's belly. Just then. Rico awakens, hungry, and lunges for her neck. Dolores dies, and Rico continues to eat. Rico and Dolores is not about sex . It is about politics. The politics of indifference. Indifference to value. We are apeople attracted to junk: We eat junk, we watch junk. we f**k junk, we are junk.

The rat reigns.

Joan Evans in Rico and Dolores photo: Frank Ward PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 19 Naughty & Nice ......

Three penises and three sets of breasts were in place and ready to go. All that was left to do was to 4 .f grab "Gonorrhea," " Her- ..'5* f pes" and "Syphilis" from * C the trunk and hang them backstage. An im- .9 1= the beholder, who brings his or her own patient audience of 4() junior high students was already gath- morality to bear. But puppets, because they ered- their raging hormones steaming up the tiny school li- are often branded as children's playthings. are especially brary where 1 had been invited to perform a sexuality puppet susceptible to criticism if they represent anything other than show. Back in the days when sex education was rarely taught. the traditional cute and fuzzy. In fact, the term "adult pup- one magnet school in Charlotte. N.C. dared to be different. petry" which for most professional puppeteers means a per- My show came at the end of a two-day intensive course de- formance that deals with mature themes. with or without signed to introduce 8th and 9th graders to the pitfalls of hav- sexual content. usually conjures up seamy images in the mind ing sex too early and to the sinorgasbord of contraception of the general public. available. The puppet show wasn't meant to teach, but to re- This just goes to show that terminology is tricky and must be inforce topics and relieve tensions by poking fun at the "seri- carefully handled when advertising art. ous" topic of sex. What better example of titillation for adult puppetry can you The three skits Ideveloped forthis showrequired anunusual findthesedaysthan in the none-too-subtle ad campaign for cast of characters: puppets representing Sexually Transmit- Broadway' Avenue Q? "Get off at Avenue Q" screams one ted Diseases. a TV salesman hawking a bottle of "Abstinence" billboard, displaying the ample cleavage of a busty puppet. and a stuffy professor lecturing on the relative size of sex Now therek a show that gives adults a chance to feel naughty organs. The week before the show, as I was making the pup- just by watching puppets acting. well, like adults. Maybe that's pets, I began to wonder if some people might why the junior high students were laugh- find polyfoam puppet penises and styrofoam je *I Ce ing so hard at the wiggling penise% and breasts offensive. , -,1-f, bouncing breasts. For a few minutes, these gangly teenagers were able to take their I suppose puppets representing human anatomy * Ii, minds off the burdens of dealing with their are like any other works of art- painting. sculp- j own developing bodies and, foralittle while ture. Greek pottery- in that they are judged by .11. 4, longer, just be kids.• f

top: Characters Gonorrhea, Herpes and Syphilis

bottom: Sam Sperm

photos: Grey Seal Puppets 20

CANADA'S "BAD BOY OF PUPPETRY"GROWS UP

EXCERPTS OF NORMAN FRISCH'S INTERVIEW WITH RONNIE BURKETT

I think perhaps one of the reasons that easy to go there. 1 met sol-ne collabora- A great many things came from my puppets are as sexually defined as tors, in particular a composer- Ed that experience, the most apparent be- they are is that when I began Theatre of Connell. He wrote music and lyrics for ing that my writing is now the primary Marionettes. in my early or mid-twen- me. was very salacious and funny and focus of all the work I do. But I was a ties, 1 was doing very broad, comic, mu- had a very similar sensibility. Ed could little perplexed: was I writing work that sical works for adults. And 1 guess 1 rhyme any body part with anything. and was very serious, even tragic, or was it thought at that time, and at that age. that we came up with all these very "bad very funny and satirical? And then I bawdy humor was a way to define my- boy" marionette musicals. And so I be- realized that in my circle of close ac- selias an adult performer. came "The Bad Boy of Puppetry" in the quaintances, we can be discussing some- Given that 1 was raised in Canada. press for a very long time. thing quite sad, very life-and-death. and I had not only the American influence But beginning with Tinka 's New there can be tears. and then a very funny (from television in the United States), Dress in 1994- or really even before or caustic remark will spring forth and but I also hadalot of British influence- then-Ibegan wanting to create a more everyone will break into outrageous we in Canada are really trapped between text-based puppet theater, without rely- laughter. 1 thought: this is the world I those two cultures. Withthe Britishcul- ing on all this double-entrendre and know, which is a gay world, with all tural influence came, well , the CarrY On triple-entrendre cheeky humorwhich . as emotions available all the time . I ' ve movies and all that very sort of Benny 1 said. had become almost too easy for lived an urban lifestyle for all of my Hill comedy- this is what I grew up on. me. And I needed to know that I could adult life, so 1 know people who embrace And so bawdy. cheeky. boob-and-bum write a play without always winking and every form of sexuality, and nothing is jokes were probably what lfound funny nudging the audience. in that very Brit- really that scandalous to me. I just al- from a very early age. When I began ish, music hall mode. That was a big lowed all these elements of my own life doing puppet work, it was almost too part of the experiment for me. into the writifig PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 2I

hese unique characters who can for themselves within the context IF YOU'RE NOT YETA MEMBER OF UNIMA-USA, lay, and speak for me- but only beat the newsstand price with a SUBSCRIPTION to: ·lit '.' I ... I I vly current work. Provenance, is a brothel in Vienna, and centers old madam and her four whores. is about Beauty. and Name: ,hole piece irch for Beauty, and the objectifi- Address: of things that we find beautiful. City, State: he central character is a painting taked young man... Honestly, I Zip: I can only delve into these things Phone: se I come from a community- the Email: INTERNATIONAL immunity- which exists in high ification mode at all times. Think- the "glossy" version of gay life. UNIMA-USA, Inc. c/o Center for Puppetry Arts * a,A.' 1 ~ *ivy, b my lifestyle:' as reflected in the 1404 Spring St NW, Atlanta, GA 30309-2820, USA 1=I.#1/ 51 :ines and Will and Grace and all vhich is all about fitness and beauty (404) 873-3089 Le "A-list" lifestyle. I think I can TELEVISION rave this discussion with an audi-

r ence because I've lived in Plmagsubscribeinsert 9/2003 a minority culture and ob- ~ the NEXT 2 ISSUES at the reduced price of $10* served this kind of objec- first hand. Al- ~ the NEXT 4 ISSUES (2 years) for $20* tification though, finally, that is not F3 BACK ISSUES at $7 each* what the play is really 1997- #3 0 100 years of Ubu, etc. *ADD POSTAGE: about....At this point, be- in the U.S. $3/yr or $1.50/issue 1998- #4 0 Puppetry, New and Old outside, add $4. per issue cause I'm now too old to 1999- #5 0 Shadows, Obraztsov and more continue playing that "bad when I touch on is- FALL 1999- #6 ~ Training the Puppet Artist boy," sues of sexuality within SPRING 2000- #7 0 Traditional and Classical Puppetry these pieces, 1 no longer FALL 2000- #8 0 Technology and Performance treat sex flippantly. I no SPRING 2001- #9 0 Propaganda longer use sex as comedy. FALL 2001- #10 ~ Television I now use sexuality as a SPRING-2002- #11 0 Spirituality --- ~j „, - - - - fuller dimension of character. Which it is. It is. • FALL 2002- #12 0 opera SPRING 2003- #13 ~ Unheard Of ~ INFORMATION about UNIMA-USA check made payable to UNIMA-USA, Inc. Sorry, no credit card orders accepted. Enclose CANSTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

By LUCAS OLENIUK ww.unima usa org PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 2I

In Tinka i New Dress, for instance, first began performing the piece. I ated these unique characters who can one of the major characters, the tragic thought: Oh. dear. Maybe I've taken speak forthemselves within the context hero. is Morag- a very high-camp drag him a bit too far. Maybe that kind of of a play. and speak for me- but only queen. But l wanted to create Morag as anger has no place here. is of no use. for ine. a love interest for Tinka. which reflects Just as I was about to edit him. to soften the truth that not all cross-dressers are him . the building that my home and stu- My current work. Provenance. is gay. I need to remind my audience- the dio were in was 'soaked" on Hallow- set in a brothel in Vienna. and centers audience that tends to follow my work: een. covered in really homophobic hate on an old madam and her four whores. Don't judge the book by its cover al- graffiti. And forthe first tinieinmy life, The whole piece is about Beauty. and ways. For me. this made Morag an inli- I became so enraged that 1 didn't know the search for Beauty. and the objectifi- nitely richer character to play, because what to do. The vigilante in me ex- cation of things that we find beautiful. his very complex sexuality is at the core pl(*led. with all the suppressed rage of And the central character is a painting of who he is. having been "the good boy- all my life: of a naked young man. Honestly, 1 Don't be too visible. Ronnie. Know think 1 can only delve into these things Actually. forthemost part, I'ni not your place, because you're not in the because I come from a community-the a very big sell in the gay community. norm here. And I decided 1 needed to gay community- which exists in high Most of my audience is composed of hang on to this rage. but to use it- to objectification modeatalltimes. Think- theater students and middle-aged hetero- channel it into Eden's journey. ing of the "glossy" version of gay life. sexual theatergoers, but because I am so "the gay lifestyle." as reflected in the accessible to the audience. because I am I ' ve never assumed that I could magazines and Will and Grace and all constantly visible, 1 think everyone can speak for a gay community, or any gay that, which is all about fitness and beauty figure out pretty quickly that it's a big man other than myself. or any group of and the "A-list" lifestyle. I think 1 can 01'homo up on stage. My job lthink, artists other than myself. But I have cre- only have this discussion with an audi- is to acknowledge that ence because I've lived in they know that. and then a minority culture and ob- be able to present a whole served this kind of objec- spectrum of characters of tification first hand. Al- every sexuality. This though, finally, that is not makes for a much richer -I'. ."'..." .,1(~~> what the play is really discussion all around. AU~; ic.m*.*--*,v*4.-..»,-'.,44»5 f /0&F# about....At this point, be- And the characters that cause rm now too old to spring from "my world-- - 1 continue playing that "bad i. , * 6 M .* that is, the gay world- are F, boy," when 1 touch on is- not any more noble than . 4 sues of sexuality within the other characters. In these pieces, 1 no longer Street of Blood. for iii- treat sex flippantly. Ino use sex as comedy. stance. Eden's anger was 21//9 longer a very dark thing. and very 1 now use sexuality as a unsettling to many people , ,*~ fuller dimension of char- who saw it. certainly in the * 14 acter. Which it is. It is. • gay community. When I *4. i T

11 CANSTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

By LUCAS OLENIUK 22 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL Excerpts of Norman Frisch's interview with Paul Zaloom Mr. Punch Moves to West Hollywood, Gets a Boyfriend, but Success Doesn't Change Him! aniclecontainsirankianguage I dieime ~m~~-mimag The story is What interested me were the '. really simple- T and great. But elements that are already in the ¥54* what does it story. Like the policeman . Well . A ** ' F.. _t: really meani And that's obviously the L.A.P.D. why is it impor- Ramparts Division, the jerks i ft-i' tam to do it'? planting drugs. beating people to Because it's death, shooting and killing them- - anarchistic, and absolutely criminal cops. Death. Punch gets to do that's the whole idea of being :lfraid . 1. *e . .5 . everything that of death. confronting death. The everyone haneman: capital punishment. that wouldn't dare do. chest-beating pc,litical morality. or even dare to The Devil: I took the great opportu- portray. So nity to make the Devil a priest. and Punch is com- to rag on religion. So it's all a great pletely "Politi- framework for contemporary cally incorrect : polilic.il K:~Tlic. he chucks the baby out the Now how does the gay thing window: he kills work in all that'? I figured it would r . -¥ 1 /12*,1*ft,1.pzlj *1*,wj: his wife: the cop be interesting (for me) if Punch was comes over. he gay, but his affect is exactly the kills the cop: the same as if he was straight. And if hangman comes, he was an older guy with a big nose. he kills the and his boyfriend Jimmy is this I've done a series of Punch (or Punch- hanlzman: Death younger Chelsea/West Hollywood inspired) shows over the years, on a comes. he kills clone- now it's become. like. I variety of themes. 1 was really intlu- Death: the Devil massively autobiographical. Punch. enced by George Konnoff. who died comes. he kills because he's Punch. is obsessed twoyears ago. He was the big Punch the Devil. Then, with sex. In my show. hejustlikes theoretician around the Bread and in the American humping guyA. Puppet scene, and wa, the most version. he gets Punch-obsessed person rve ever met. his comeuppance, In one scene. Jimmy comes He actually really adopted the whole because of our home and Punch jumps on him and Punch attitude as his own guiding Puritan tradition. says "Let's get busy," and starts philosophy in life. and he was hugely In England, he putting the stones to him. And influential on me in that respect... dc,esn't get his Jimmy pushes him off. and says Amy Trompetter- and Andy comeuppance. "All you ever think about is sex. Trompetter- were also big influences. He essentially sex. sex. And Punch .says, goes "Screw you!"and that's the end of the show. PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 23

Aa:iaah...your point being???T' And have no problemwith Punch killing top of her. But. uh. you can't really do although nobody ever laughs at the essentially in self-defense, against the that with Jimmy. joke or thinks it's funny. it's my big deadly forces of authority- the cop. 'screw you" to everyone who's given the hangman, the Devil, and so on. But, you know, at the same time. tile that old, tired goddam line : All But it was unacceptable to me that I don ' t think this show is "about" you ever think about is sex. sex, sex. 1 Punch should kill his wife. or in this being gay. That's really not the central don't get that. They're complain- case Jimmy. In my life. in my life- theme. Actually, Punch's gay identity ine?!?! time, this is not acceptable. So in my here is really just incidental. And play, Punch doesn't beat his wife to philosophically, I feel that's correct- And I wanted to use the show as death. Jimmy just gets in a huff and that as gay men, it's a mistake for us to a venue to attack all this goes home to Mother. define ourselves in a central, primary assimilationist "gay" bull. "Gay" is way as -gay." Our queerness is so now like this code-word for this right- Now. the baby: I have no prob- ordinary. really, that's it's not all that wing. desperate need to be "the boy lein killing the baby. That's an vitally important- or shouldn't be. next door/' and to be just like the accident. Punch is a lunatic. he Being gay, and identified as gay, and straight people. doesn't know how to handle a baby: your friends ate 711 gay. that's bull. " And 1 agree with [early Los "Oops, butterfingers," it goes flying The "queer thing. which is more Angeles gay rights activist,1 Morris out the window- that's been going on correct. is that you're just another Kite and Harry Hay. who said "Hey, for 500 years. It's no big trauma. freaking weirdo. "Queer" doesn't let's just be queer. Screw trying to be Jimmy comes home and says, equal 'gay": it doesn't mean that you just like straight people. Who needs "Where's the baby?" And Punch says, like same gender people. It just means iti Why should we model our lives to "1' ni right here." And Jimmy says, that you reject the norm. that you're be just like themT' Fran Leibowitz "No. the other one". And he looks out willing to be seen as weird. So in that says. "You know. gay men are the the window and goes. "Oh, Punch, not sense, Punch has always been queer. straightest people in the world. They again!'?" Now usually at this point He's always been totally in-your-face all want to get married and go iii the Punch says to Judy, "Well, we can "out" with his sexuality. I just made Army, inake another one" and he climb>, on him gay. too.

And I live in the middle of the Bottom line, Punch is about biggest gay city in the world, the battle between the brain and West Hollywood. and it's just the dick. It's interesting. how relentlessly assimilationist. So 1 Is wanted the show to address all , , IMA this. and that's really where 5* Punch and Jininty is, coming ..': 1,-113-" '., from. ,>953>2 *»f * Now for me. the real '.f»j> col-~undrum was the violence. 1

4 4 4

Z 24 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

much men really are ruled by their Professors, which is a collection of accepted into the College of dicks- and I'm not talking only about eight or ten guys in England, who are Professors. 1 thought. in the spirit gay men. A/l men! This constant all directly descended from Queen of the show. I should just crawl battle between their heads and their Victoria or something. 1 up their butts and bug them. penises. In my show, after Punch has -'"-/94./.r#& knew from the start killed the hangman. and Death. and '~7~T ,' 1= 1 that they And they did write an the Devil, he's celebrating and he .4.. ; wouldn't accept oilicial letter back. rejecting me. \ decides to show the audience his me as a mem- "We're sorry to disappoint you. dick- which is this enormous, her, because We are unable to accept your fleshy thing. very realistic * I' m an Amen- application at this time. D:ida looking. but huge- this huge can. And i dada dada. And then smack in the j dildo . Bigger than he is. And {FS. 1 .*,1~--~ don ' t use a niiddle of the letter there ' s this he shows the audience all the A * *J~ · C *r swazzle, which one-sentence paragraph: "Punch tricks hix dick can do. But in D -··••~ 1~' 1 hate. And in is not gay." Dada dada dada. the end, it beats him to death. this letter, 1 The only thing that can I, F Ar ~ included a whole And my message to those defeat Punch is his own scenario of my guys. and to that whole world. is: W.. -vqh , ' show. of Screw you. you English assholes. Punch and How the hell do you know Punch I wrote a letter to Jimmy, and 1 is not gay? You can kiss my big the College of [ Punchl said I would queer ass . He is now ! And that, like to be you can print in the magazine! IPaul laughs.l • Paul Zaloom Mr. Fri>ch has directed nunterous theatre /2..0 /il 'a/.0 and (/ 1-1-entl \' liu'N iii NYC.

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Puppet Hisjory Column byJohn Bell Sex and Puppets

lihido, the sex in the show fulfills our rather natural desire to see puppets do everything that humans can. In what follows I would like to look at some different aspects of sexu ality and puppets. and try to understand id -n why it's such a persistent puppet theater tradition. 1 4/ Puppets and the Performance of ' fV.-~4 : Fertility it should first of all be made clear that sex with puppets Puppet Sexon Broadway ! are two things going on which prevent does not at all necessarily mean porno- its At one moment in the new Broadway this from being pure pornography. First graphic entertainment. In some of still puppet musical Avenue Q. the principal of all, the sex partners are not people. most basic modes, sex has been and romantic couple, Princeton and Kate but puppets: and more exactly. puppets is suggested or performed by puppets than Monster, finally realize their mutual at- built in the Muppet image, with color_ and objects in fertility rites rather lingam traction. and go to bed. Literally. Be- ful fake fur, benign expressions, and for titillation. The yoni and cause far from allowing the couple to large moveable mouths. Secondly, like sculptures of India. representing divine so slip off behind closed doors, Arenue Q all the otherpuppet characters in Are,mc female and male genitalia. are not breaks intoa musical number (-You Can 0, the bodies of the Princeton and Kate much salacious as they are sacred ob- Be As Loud As You Want When You're Monster puppets exist only from the jects representingthe powers of sex and In Making Love"), and the couple go after waist up, so there's literally nothing procreation as essential life forces. pup- each other with gusto. on a suddenly there with which to fornicate. "You Can Central America. anthropomorphic materialized mattress. Not only do pup- Be As Loud As You Want When You're pets played an important role in Mayan it peteers John Tartaglia and Stephanie Making Love- was areal crowd-pleaser and Aztec fertility rites, although D'Abruzzo show us Princeton and Kate the night I saw it because it takes ad_ dc,esn't seem that they were particularly stripped almost naked (if a puppet can vantage of puppets' ambiguous ability truly be said to be naked) and humping to suggest or even mime sexual acts face to face. but they also perform an whileactually engaginginnothing ofthe array ofsimulated sexual gymnastics in- kind. since there's no way cloth. plas- cluding fellatio and cunnilingus. sepa- tic. wood. leather. or any other material rarely and then simultaneously. There could experience sexuality. 1 mention this Avenue Q episode because. like some kind of lone-repressed release of PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 27

Puppet Sex as Ritual Entertainment sexualized with genital details. Hout- In the development of Greek drama. one nfunity a fecund power, which can then ever. rural Korean ritual puppets used can see an interesting shift from ritual aftach itself to the crops, whose growth in fertility rituals often included a rod performance to theater, specifically in Must sustain us or inspire the fertility of puppet equipped with a comically overt terms of sex and performing objects. t~e next hurnan generation. The Turk- sized penis. and in ancient Greece, thd Outrageously long phalluses shifted i,jh Karaguz has traditionally performed origins of the Festival of Dionysus from adorning processional statues of s~ch a role in fertility rites. since its per- (which gave birth to Greek tragedy and' Dionysus to being essential elements of ffrmances were a regular feature of cir- comedy) included parades through Ath-1 bawdy Greek comedies, as niasked ac_ cumcision ceremonies. According to ens featuring life-size sculptures of the 1 tors attached such excessive extensions ~letin And. "the phallus was an accepted fertility god Dionysis sporting a fully ~ to themselves for such plays as 1*Irt of the Karag6z show." and in fact erect penis. This kind of very public per- A ristophanes's Lvsistrata. (M ichael 'ft is even believed that the large. move- formance of sexuality in the context of ~ Romany>,hyn's recent table-top puppet a~le arm of Karagoz had originally been fertility ritual could later be seen in a ~versionof Aristophanes'spolitical com- ~phallus." As in the case of classic ribald seventeenth-century street proces - ledy Peace reprised this tradition by giv- reel< traditions , Karagoz connected sion noted by Turkish theater historian 1:ing the character Hermes a hilarious fbrtility, sexual titillation, and comedy. Metin And. in his book Karag,k: Turk- hnoveable penis whose gestures punctu- Ib the early nineteenth century. the En- ish Shadow Theater. During a fifteen- 6ted his fpeeches.) It may have been in- Slish Romantic poet George Gordon . day festival marking the circumcision ¢vitable that puppet performance based 1,ord Byron saw such a ribald Turkish ceremony for Sultan Mehmet IV's son M fertility rituals would again and again Karag6z (or perhaps Greek Karaghiozis) Mustafa.And writes. "a foreign observer shitt itselfinto the creation of broader ~hadow show in Ottoinan Greece. dur- mentions that a jester. attired in a cos- phippet entertainments which, while i~ig the Islamic holy days of Ramadan. tume made of straw and paper, rode on tyjaintaining connections to ritual, would ']Performed in a corner of a dirty col- a donkey, carrying a giant size phallus. fdcus on the di fferent job of making sex *house by an itinerant Jewish puppe With this. he saluted the onlookers. ;ti,ries funny and provocative. Puppet ~eer. according to Benita Eisler's biog- while lady spectators. modestly feftility rites want tobringintothecom- raphy ofthe poet. the show Byron and shrouded 1 ~_»1~ his travelling companion behind their watched was -played by

I ...} I ... .. A „ veils, or shadow puppets, cutouts hiding their Y made of greased paper. . faces in 9'~' ~, featuring a hero possess- their hands, a. K '. ing an enormous penis f 1 * >,tared at the . supported by a piece of sight be- ~ 1.4. n../5.85: 4 string hung from his neck. tween their ~,~, 1 The action that most de- fingers/' * lighted the young male , -~ audience was the finale.

'; I +116 when the protagonist held ,%- i. a soliloquy addressed to ..~ the appendage alluded to, which he snubbed most soundly with his fist, a

. 12~ prelude to the devil de- j scending and removing this engine from before and affixing it to his pos- -- t,-» + 4 j *4 . I. .-,--4 4; terion" Although the per- ·- - A formance was no doubt >11 28 PUPPET HISTORY greeted by howls of laughter from the offstage voice. Here. for example. is the Puppets, Sexuality and the local audience. it's worth noting that Tart urging on her lover: "On the bed, Performance of Gender Byron's friend was outraged, by the doggie... onthe bed...It's more comfort- surprising that there is a strong Europeans able doing it on the bed.,. (He carries it's not nineteenth century. modern multi-cultural tradition of puppets rep- considered the performance ofsex tobe her over to the bed. and begins the at- resenting sexuality in both fertility ritu- The way ribald KaragGz per- lack with a certain frenzy.) Wait... wait obscene. als and the entertainment of pornogra- sists in inaintaining connections to the till 1 pull my dress up underneath... do phy. since puppets do so many things world is paralleled by the nature you wanttotear allmy things'?... There... ritual with such efficient and effective theat- ofthe Javanese puppet characters Semar. now I'm ready... Go ahead... Not that ricality. But there is another interesting Gareng and Bagong. for. in ad- way, thought You're heading in the Petruk. aspect of puppets and sexuality. and that acerbic commentators wrong direction... Let me guide it in. dition to being is the way that puppets. masks. and other goings on of wayang, There now! Wait, my big baby... Oh!... about the serious performing objects allow the perform- as well as actual gods, they embody and wait!... Let's do it a long time, a long, ers to cross gender boundaries. The ex- joke about their sexual drives with as long time: right, little puppy dog?... Now „ ample of Lemercier de Neuville's pup- much gusto as Karag6z ( although you're in... can you feel me?... Wow! pets suggests how puppets offer a kind they aren't normally fitted with actual lt's hard to know exactly what de of safety, or insulation from the actual phalluses). Neuville and Duboys did with their performance of sex acts: but they also marionettes during this scene, although offer their performers the safety of per- it doesn't seem like they would shy away Pornography: the forming the other gender, By this I mean from showing us (in much greater real- of Puppet Sex that puppeteers routinely. and with Modernization istic detail than Avenue 0) exactly what hardly a second thought, regularly cre- 11- the part of the progress of western the Tart and the Student are doing. Iii a from the ate and perform their gender opposites. culture was to remove sexuality way, the Erotikon Theatron, like many other Male puppeteers perform female pup- performance of public ritual, the nineteenth-century performance forms, haracters, and female puppeteers side of this repressive effort was the re- seems like a preliminary gesture towards pet c perform male characters. Punch profes- appearance of sexuality as naughty en- the realistic pornography which quickly sors traditionally performed all the roles tertainment, through the secret satisfac- arose with the invention of new tech- in their show: Judy and Polly as well as lions of pornography. Puppets played a nologies of cinema and photography, Punch and the other male characters. role in this, as Daniel Gerould pointed and which now so characterizes the in- And the traditional role of puppet mir- out in a 1981 TDR article about a mid- vention of the internet. But puppets per- the- rator in Sicilian traditions meant that one nineteenth-century private puppet forming sex acts are quite different from speaker did all the puppets' voices: the ater in Paris called the Erotikon photographic images. Although a major French puppeteer lovely Angelica as well as brave Or- Theatron . The great goal of a play like La Grisette et lando, just as Javanese dalangs provide and puppet historian Louis Lemercier de l 'emdiantis clearly audience titillation , cos- both male and female voices for their Neuville made the marionettes, there's something primitive and innocent theater, and per- epic tales. More recently, Frank Oz be- tunies, and sets for this about puppets that surely must have with puppe- came renowned for inventing the performed its shows together emerged in Lemercier de Neuville's Henri Monnier sona of Miss Piggy. and Wayland Flow- teer Jean Duboys. Satirist marionettes, I would say that precisely ers built his whole puppet careeraround wrote short ribald plays for the Erotikon because those puppets were neither hu- his outrageous character Madame. I Theatron, typically featuring an amorous man nor exact images of humans. they think ol this in terms of one of Peter student and a prostitute. with comic re- maintained a kind of license, an inno- of Schumann's most powerful perfor- lief provided by Monnier's caricature cence which marks the mutual recogn 1- mances of the seventies and eizhties, the bourgeois pomposity. the corpulent tion by audience and performers alike » (a fore- White Lady. Schumann's White Lady Monsieur Joseph Prudhomme that. in fact. we are not watching human out, of Allied . (who danced on five-foot stilts) played runner. Gerould points beings engage in sex acts. Because ot a prominent role in Bread and Puppet Jarry's puppet anti-hero POre Ubu). In this basic non-reality, the sexual activ- . Theater's White Horse Butcher, a text- Monnier 's play La Grisette et l 'etudiant tty of puppets is freed from the various (The Tart and the Student), attention is black-and-white spectacle on an elements of modesty, shame, and guilt, free, open stage, which featured masked expressly focused on the step-by-step which are inevitably attached to strictly Butcher characters who hunted, cap- development of the couple's sexual con- human enactments of the same actions. gress. which is comically interrupted at tured, and then executed a wild White inopportune moments by Prudhomme's Horse (a life-size two-person puppet), PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 29 in a plot inspired by the medieval Uni- but because it's puppets (whether or not a bit more uncomfortable by happilj be- corn Tapestries. Schumann's White thepuppets arecquipped with genitals), ing gay. What Zaloodi achieves with this Lady emerged at the show's climax to we haven't really seen what we all saw. is rather interesting~ On the one hilnd. motivate the White Horse's resurrection. and Stephanie D'Abruzzo and John Punchandlimm.rnfight beshocking to at which point she danced offastridethe Tartagliadidn'treally performthose acts many audiences. be~auseit thrusts #ay horse's back. Schumann played this (which in fact couldn'teven be lawfully sexualityin ourfacek. Once. then agt~in. character across the United States. in performed on a Broadway stage). The the shock of puppetisex is mitigated by Europe and in Latin America for a good laughter greeting Princeton and Kate the fact that "we'rebnly watching pflp- number of years. and it often struck me Monster's sex scene is our mutual un- pets after all." andlthat Zaloom'% IYer- how the dynamics of puppet theater en- derstanding- performers and audience formance is const®tly punctuated Iby tirely characterized the meaning of this both- that we are all experiencing the humor (as. in fact. 4re almost all the in- performance. By this I mean that if thrill of voyeurism without an actual stances of puppet sex we've mentioned Schumann were an actor. and White union of two sexual beings. Paul Zaloom here). The almow Mexplicable power-bf Hone Butcher a written drania. one of plays with this puppet sexuality in his puppets has often been remarked up®, his most powerful theatrical roles would 1~ be a drag performance. Performing in drag is a long and honored tradition, but . I *7// 1 i it brings with it a whole passel of com- plicated issues connected to the perior- mance of the body: what exactly does it mean when an actor plays the other sex'? 4 For example. around the same time that e Schumann was performing the White .'4,4:, B ' Lady. Charles Ludlam made equally , . 4 I V 1 strong impressions in the modern the- t' ater world by performing in drag in the r +1 title role of the melodrama Camille. But Ludlam's drag performance was part ol the development of something Stefan 0 Brecht called "queer theater," in which theatrical drag not only exists as dra- f :,\ 1/'. matic entertainment. but as a conscious , I. . '.$...1 . ' social statement about the need for free . expre>

Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre in Don Juan, or Wages of Debauchery directed by Vit Horejs

review by Hanne Tierny it's amazing how all the Kaspars, That much said about Kasparek. don't like puppets to be put through this Punchesand Kaspareks, after many cen- this entire Don ./ttan was a smart work kind of existential exercise. In Vit turies and hardly any adjustments, still of puppetry that combined folk and so- Horejs ' s Don Juan. both puppets and have the vitality and the dynamism to phistication to the advantage of both. manipulators presented straightforward takeoverashow. True, thedynamismis (Vit Horejs uses old as well as newly identities to the audience: it was done transferred from the manipulator. but carved marionettes from Czechoslova- very well and with a light touch. these old boys. when properly applied. kia: they give his productions a comfort- The Czechoslovak-American make you realize the brilliance of the able, folky look.) Apparently the play. a Marionette Theatre is keeping a folk art invention. favorite in 18th century Europe. and alive in a spirited manner. Puppets are Vit Horeis's Kasparek, Don Juan's written by itinerant puppeteers. includes predictable in their movements: they servant in this production. more thanjus- directions for the puppeteer to act the function on repetition. To watch them tifies the longevity of his species. Per- same part as that of the puppet he or she stomping around. chasing each other or formed by Theresa Linnihan, he took manipulated. I would not have thought hanging into a wall can make one a little over the stage . Or maybe she took over this could be done seamlessly enough . wary. The liveliness of this Don jlletil the stage. She became that little puppet so that between the two ofthem they be- production was a tremendous credit to who knew how he would whi~tle if he came one character for the audience. the company. The old text. interspersed could. how he would run away if he Personal interaction between a iiianipu- with references to everyday life (like dared. or stay if he thought it was ad- lator and a puppet rarely works for me. credit cards being maxed out) had lots vantageous. Actually. they both took I don't lose track ofwho is whom and I of humor in it that might have been over the stage. stilled or self-conscious with less easy- going performers. In the Aomewhat weakending. Don Juan and Kasparek were shrunk into tiny little puppets- an obvious gimmick used by too many puppeteers. Two large bony hands descended Don Juan into hell. persuading no one of the terrible fate that awaited him down there. But by that time it was the end and everyone had spent a delightful evening. •

DoAa Anna hovers over the body of her Father PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 3I

' ~ 1 ....*'. Mi#~ /

4..

* t

Dofia Anna and Don Juan in the graveyard

photos: Vit Horejs

Don Juan, Kasparek and Hermit Unus in the Forlorn Forest 32 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL Barberof Seville by Amy Trompetter directed by Kristjan Jan/i with the Absolute Ensemble St. Ann's Warehouse, Brool

three or even six Rosinas, etc.. some were large, some small. but always one knew that these were theatrical conventions that make a boring stage more in- review by Hanne Tierney teresting. (These sudden changes in size seemed to have no other purpose than The loss of the Henson Festival can't knowing any better. Perhaps all of this to keep the audience from getting be mourned enough for all the obvi- has to do with my grieving over the loss bored.) "Play with the proportions. ous reasons. not least of all because the of the festival: How will New Yorkers The figures were swung around, turned festival educated the general public by ever know the art of puppetry again upside down, stood on their heads and piesenting quality puppetry and setting without the festival to bring it to us? turned sideways, to give them a sense standards for the field. The public be- The puppets in this Barber of Seville of animation . During all of this coin- gan to discriminate and to understand were merely clever staging devices, motion, the singers stood mostly to the that. although puppetry casts a wide with a few wonderful minutes of hand side, singing. net, not everything caught in it i>,good puppet work thrown in. puppetry The structure of the opera worked Even had 1 not worried about the Amy Trompetter's collaboration well as a concert. The singers sang state of puppetry, though. a lot of the with the Absolute Ensemble in beautifully. with charm and conviction. production would have seemed repeti- Rossini 's The Barber of Seville makes using few gestures and very little move- tious, predictable and somewhat bor- a case for the above. Most of the pup- merit, and yet giving a feeling of the ing to me. To be fail-, however. I need petry in this piece consisted of stiff characters they portrayed. They were to say again that the audience laughed pal)ier machE figures. large cut-outs of dressed in plain black, which made one loudly and applauded enthusiastically, old illustrations, being moved, twirled. very aware of their facial expre~sions. and that I may not be the right person twisted and turned upside down by six The stage swarmed continuously with to review this piece. since my preju- hooded puppeteers. Hands and legs the six hooded puppeteers who carried dices are very strongly in favor of pup- and other body pieces were also part these stili ligure~ around. often several petry as the fine art of manipulated ges- of this constant activity on the stage. of the same character: four Figaros. ture in inanimate objects. • as were the six puppeteers. This was not a piece one could get lost in. My opinion of these figures and their popping up and down is itielevant (1'm generally not too fond of imita- tion folk art), but the fact that the audience loved the performance requires some thought. Perhaps having seen a lot of good puppetry made me unre- .IKIL ceptive to the tricks of the trade, such as varying the scale from huge to small. dislocating legs from the body, etc. I would have enjoyed it more had I not been upset by the fact that this widely advertised and well-attended production claimed to be puppetry and that i-7.$- **i»s*sj-,4s'~,~,·'>,~,, *-, r.:, 0 the audience took it to be puppetry, not -''-=.:... PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 33

HUNGARY'S ANDRAS LENARTisthe creator of Mikropodium Theatre. His intricate miniature figures are sublime. His show Stop is performed on a stage the size of a trade paperback. It is composed of a handful ofwordless sketches performed to music- a ballerina, an accordion playing clown, a mermaid, a pair of playful dolphins.

, A second work, Con Anima (With Soul) is played on a much larger stage-- about the size of a chess board. In a desolate, futuristic setting, a troll- like figure digs up some puppet figures out of the sand, and acts out a story reminiscent of the creation myth ofAdam and Eve.

Always, LOndrt's presence is magical, his manipulation, masterful. He performed this year in festivals around Italy, and in the USA ' 0 , O ' ilu/&'e at Puppets in Portland (organized by Fig- ures of Speech Puppet Theatre) and Puppets in the Green Mountains (organized by Sandglass Theatre).•

--= V -E\SO\-OU\JA- 0\ i. f Supporting innovative and contemporary jf' puppet theater for over 20 years.

For information on our grant guidelines and other activities, please visit our web site at: www.hensonfoundation.org.

Phone 212.680.1400 584 Broadway, Suite 1007 Fax 212.680.1401 New York, NY 10012 Email [email protected] 34 BOOK REVIEW Wayang's World

Puppet Theatre in Contemporary In- "' *68 do,lesia, edited by Jan Mnizek. Michi- **2:. '' - in 4,1 Kleinsmiede's preferred method of f:..' PUppet Theater gan Paperh on South and Southeast criticism for wayang would not be the .9 Asia #50. University of Michigan .s Events 4 essay. but rather a sort of hyper-text, ' « Contemporary to Performance indonesia g Center for South and Southeast Asian ·, Approaches ]>j :~·f,1 multi-media, multi-sensory event, in C New Studies, 20()2.376 pp. ISBNO-89148- '22.4,5 .,-- 1 ,~"ezoyn..,CLA order to convey the full range of 083-8 (cloth), 0-89148-084-6 (paper). ~ . 'ff, ' .4 sights. sounds, smells. tastes and social interactions which character- This extraordinary collection of essays, ~,2 5'7» ize a night of wayang. subtitled New Approaches to Perfor- 4 mance Events and sporting a cover shot « 'kils A. L. Becker, in "On Arnheini on 0% of comic book heroine Batwoman as a ~ Language: The Case for Wayang, wayang shadow figure. includes 24 3 1 makes an interesting observation chapters by various authors and a . '* early on: "Not unexpectedly. in lengthy introduction. Jan Mrlizek is not tr%'. (ir~:r,i_~le'~ only the editor of this collection, he is : 4 Jttir.~sh~ii ilisia~ne also a contributor and he shows himself metaphor congenial to our im- to be a formidable researcher and writer, ,, age of thinking as 'reflecting. as well as having a boyish enthusiasm for !*BAZEK 1~ill 4 JAN This is something American EDIrED his subject and a keen sense of humor. ~4f puppeteers might want to try Puppet Theater in Contemporary Indo- out-"Well, 1 don't know, let me shadow nesia, despite the xmall 8-point type, is an Crt- Hendrik Kleinsmiede's that for awhile, and I'll get back to you." joyable and illuminating read. essay, "Watching Wayang with Another thing which may be a revela- Spinoza." proposes a new model of tion forAinerican puppeteers, for whom I was particularly grateful to Mnizek for scholarship from what was tradition- puppetry is essentially a visual medium. starting off with a "Geography of Way- ally a (mostly) Dutch preoccupation, is the composition of the traditional wayang."This art form has so many variants and which derived, he writes, from ang performances. from so many locations. that some sort Europe's nostalgia for the Greeks. It of"pocket guide to wayang" seems a pre- was presumed by some of these writ- for much of the time of the way- requisite to the more serious consider- ers that the indonesians would harbor ang performance, there is little ations of the art which are to follow. similar nostalgic feelings for India as movement on the screen. A good an idealized spring froin which flowed Mi-:izek's Introduction begins unexpect- the origins of their mythology. arts and puppeteer will put iii little move- edly with a heated (if imaginary) disc us- ethics. This was not a very apt model, ments of the puppets' arms now and sion of wayang by the characters from as it turns out. then to keep the screen alive. but for Goethe's Faust. This is an immediate cue much of the time what is happening to the readers that, not only is the editor According to Kleinsmiede. it was ix talk. Performances outside of Java an inventive soul. but that we may ex- Plato's triumph of mentalism which led and Bali are often much shorter and pect new points of view in the pages to the mind/body dualism of Descartes. relatively talkless, as are special ahead. Thereafter, his introductory re- A better paradigm. he writes, is the marks put the book's essays into perspec- view of the less well remembered tourist performances in Indonesia. tive though, in fact. 1 found them so de- Spinoza, which is a monistic, or but in a regular shadow play there is tailed that I decided to read the essays „ wholistic," view of the world, in which so much talk that people who like first, returning to the introductory re- an individual was defined by a num- wayang often listen to it on the ra- marks only later. so as to preserve some bet- of interconnected "bodies" or dio. For them. as for many who of the surprise. modes of being." (This is a view which watch shadow plays- and there are is given credence by a number of the other essays in the collection.) PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 35

rk. 4 many peformances all over in city \ 4, 5

>if

'Im begin and and village- it is primarily a verbal If all dalangs' incantations * *; ,4 1 *#· end with the number one. then this book medium. A dalang can get away with .4/5% 151 1 Sl"* begins and ends fittingly with words and minimal - sloppy movements * 1," C#' from Mrtizek. For an academic. he is shadow painting if he or she is good *11~ ...,ir . 4~ 9 surprisingly passionate and candid in ir=.r.' . ,re with words . m his prose style. Kleinsmiede. in fact. ~ 4- ~.. . A jl~rt'§'~~ -r>~ remarks on the almost complete lack of 9/QI *00 /* I Kathy Foley writes not only as a scholar. ».'- " novelistic" writing in the whole "cor- but as a dalang- a puppeteer. in her chap- 1.#.2 r ·.· ->VIA' pus" of Dutch colonial andinternational ter. "First Things," she examines the postcolonial writing on wayang, thal is, meaning of the niurwa- the "opening --~11&- 7 writing which affects the body- which passage of each all-night piesentation. : BL . Id =:M ,. ...:. . . 8 is Visceral in its impact. Though there are variations, depetiding lit ~-2 ., -~ 1*~112~ on the region, the /iturw't, ColiSists Of ''4"'. ti,·4:,blf:' 7/2,- ." '*:4r #**I<+„,4,: It strikes me as reniarkable that the three basic parts: "(1) the dance ofthe ip#.di~Zi. ,(Illy*~s ·~~»st.- 4 only thesis I ever read on wayang km'ou (tree puppet).(2) the introduction *;*4)* '.+4*** ' .2,46 »f34--*"' ~i, that broke the mold on academic of the puppets, and, (3) the opening in- writing conventions and read like cantation. In one sense, these activities Nyi Suharni Sabdowati with her version of are as pragmatic as raising the curtain, Limbuk (c. late 1960's early 1970's) a novel is Jan Mrtizek's. getting the cast onstage. and delivering a prologue iii a European play. Yet the I can well believe it after reading Pup- hour-long durationandstructuralelabo- elaboratenumerology ofthedalangs- the Pet Theatre iii Contemporary indone- ration give these actions a weight and duality offorces. the quaternity ofthe car- sia. a fascinating and valuable contri- fascination of their own." Indeed. it is dinal points. the nine openings of the bution to the scholarship of wayang. here that the dalang creates a sort of an body. etc.- everything reduces to a sin- analog of the entire universe and man's gularity: a perfect whole. There is much review by Andrew Periale place in it. The placement of figures to more to it than this, and Foley whets our the right or left of the dalang. whose appetite without belaboring anything. As head is always visible during the per- a dalang herself. though, she offers a (.il\1'Ill<21 /ARE'.N 33 formance. has profound significance: unique perspective. She recites the incan- "All forces in the universe. good and tations of old as she learned them from evil. male and female. god and demon. her teachers. The words are clear. but right and left. are located for the night their meaning ambiguous. They beg to within the performer's body." This hear- be meditated upon. in order to reveal ~h~ ki;U; kens back to Kleinsmiede's defense of their meaning slowly over time. Spinoza's monism over Descartes's du- . 7 A-1 lila. rj)11.14- alistic universe. The dalang'sincantation One thingwhich xets allthe authors here " ~ ~~ 41 iii#qiMIi always begins and ends with the num- apart from the academics of old is that ber one. In ancient Egypt, according to these writers- Foley. Kleinsmiede and the fr the great French observer R. A. others-have seen a lot of wayang first- j*==-{~IZSIE==u{ disfks, Schwaller de Lubicz , the only number hand. They understand it not only with I ,g. 2 An impressimi ofa "bitre way,ing" pe,·fi~} matice in the universe was the number one : all their minds. but with their bodies. and the iu a radio studio- The "puppitier" nips inid crits/irs other numbers were merely aspects of essays. t:,ken as :i whole. convey well. 1 ,/g,///nt a th,ur.,//id tht' "in„,7<7,/i/" tabi'.u,/,t' of'tht bq,801: AZ) the one . Foley shows us how. in the think . the totality of the wayang experi - "<'""I"'"""""~ 0''> a ~> 4 ence. inasmuch as this is possible. 36 BOOK REVIEW

Bruce and Darlene FRASCONE marionettes. It contains puppet's character, to the details of the useful time-tested infor- Dwiggins control paddle, to achieving mation relating to bal- balance through the use of a variety of THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF ance, proportion and woods. MARIONETTE MAKING manipulation. When I see simple, straightforward il- Volume 1 The Frascones' concept lustrations which are larger than they of what a marionette is need to be in order to convey informa- L'ART ET LA TECHNIQUE DE LA seems fairly clear from tion, and entire pages devoted to chap- MARIONNETTE A FILS the outset : "Once the ter heads . I get suspicious that the book marionette is fini,hed designer may be padding the page count and assembled, it gives in order to increase the book's "per- the impression of a ceived value." Only half a page oftext small inanimate being. at the end of the book is given to -op- -T + However. the inertia of tional strings," and then only to the heel its movements and the string. What ofthe elbow string so char- natural actions of its acteristic of the National Marionette joints give it human-like Theater? How about a hand-to-mouth behavior." In other string orahand-to heart string for a spe- words, it is something cial gesture, never mind stringing for imitative, more or less, some standaid trick such as juggling or of a human being in both doing a handstand: There is a conclud- appearance and action. ing note which intimates that such tech- It is likely that that is ex- niques. as well as animal marionettes, actly the sort of figure the use of modern technology, and which most people seek- woodc:irving may be covered in a yet- Bruce and Dailene Frascone have pro- ing outthissort ofbook would intend to to-be-published Volume II; given the duced a book that should be valuable to make. There might be a benefit, though, relatively slim size of this volume (un- those who need to know how to build a to including a few photos of other art- der 100 pages) and the amount of white huinan-type marionette that looks good ists' work to demonstrate some of the space. it seems that some of this infor- and works well. Their theories owe great diversity in the field of mari- mation could have been included here. much to the works of W. A. Dwiggins onettes, from the abstract sculptures of review by Andrew Periale and Fettig (which they acknowledge) Hanne Tierney to Chinese figures with and, though it lacks the beauty of 50 strings. The reader should know that Published by Le petit Fldcher. France, 20()2. Dwiggins ' Mariemette in Motion or the this is only the Frascone System of mari- 91 PP· over 2(*) drawings. photos. Soft cover. comprehensiveness of Fettig's Glove onette making. That said, there is much ISBN 2-9511663-4-6 and Rod Puppets, it clearly benefits from of value in this book, from how to use www.all(,compagnie.com/mainstring their years of professional work with facial features in order to support the Als<) avitilcible iii French.

PUPPET SHOWPlACE THEATRE Dresents PUPPETS AT NIGHT

Welcome to our third exciting season of distinctive, provocative, and groundbreaking puppet theatre for adult audiences. 32 Station Street, Brookline MA 617-731-6400 www.puppetshowplace.org '~

LL VIDEO REV If 127 "#*S ,

I45~Uy . I~22.- i ».- '' 1.meet the ~feebles r=mh- L. 1 -, 2/*. An early effort of Peter Jackson, direc- What really interested me, though. r·. 1 , A-'. I toi of the Lord of the Rmg.5 trilogy. Meet was the portrayal of human ( sort of) 1- 972/ the Feel)le~ 14 ( among other thing $) a sexual behavior by puppets . Beyond , 4end up of The Mit/,pet Shov'. In/*ch/es the titillation (or, in the case of the 37~419,~ 0 "1'*~0'~8 2 - however. the u~ually lovable characterh film's bovine porn actre~ Teat-illa- ***~:ds=,52~ ,~,;¢ may look terrific on ~tage, but back,dage tion), lurked some very ~enous com- -. the seanh xhow, the fur i~ patchy. and ments on the human condition One -. five minutes don't pax,·, without ionie- ot the fint ~cenes of the film. after f T '~a~51,f~:b-»-I one throwing up or peeing on soineone the opening ghtzy onstage number, else And there 13 sex: puppet 0ex More 1 4 of Bletch the Sea Lion (the

4 41 1, 6 thi4 and its significance later. theater's producer) making love to ,% 24 . on 4 M. , /'' , h The film wa$ shot (as with the Lord a cat (a young actress to whom he .80 - of the Rings films) in New Zealand. and has preiumably promi~ed a leading ' was released in 1989 The budget must role) He is interrupted by the appear- have been rather low, a~ Peter Jackson anceol Heidi the Hippo. the show'slead- In the end, the bad are punished was not only the director and co-writer, ing lady with whom he has an exi,,ting and the good are rewarded . . more or he was al>,o the camera operator Still. relation~hip, and an obvioux parody of less Heidi get* revenge on Bletch In there was a good 41/e crew, the Vaude- Mis~ Piggy. It 1$. however. inconceiv- the muppet movies. Miss Piggy is often ville era theatre which wa4 the film'% able that Mi~ Piggy 0hould ever dis- able to help the resolution along with a primary set looked great, and the pup- cover Kermit in a back room hanging few well placed karate kicks But d petty was actually pretty good. I'd only Big Bird. We have too much inve~,ted in Piggy 1% Jackie Chan. Heidi iS Quentin heard about this film in pashing, but hav- the unfhakable hopefulne>,5 and moral Tarrentino. She goes on a rampage with ing run acro~ some reviews ofit lately purity of Kermit Jackson steps on our a very large machine gun. and the fur on the internet, 1 realized that 1 had to Polyanna behefs by ~howing us the dark and feathers tly as she wipes out most see it: side of Show Biz- lost innocence on of the theater's cast and Ataff iii front of "Two days ago. my roommate ~ub- bed,;heets smelling of cigar ~moke a full house of horrified onlookers Jected me to The Wont Film Ever Made. One of the nice thingA about I 've given Meet the Feebles heri- without any warning whatfoever. I'll Jack'·on's u~,e of puppet4 1$ thathetakes OUS concideration I'm surethatthereare never trw,t his him recommendationf advantage of their naturally Brechtian those, hke the first reviewer above, who aizain " http //letaboo diaryland com/ di~tancing effect. We know in out minds will wonder why i bothered. Beyond the evilpupeK html that the bunny rabbit orgy is Ju,d a rhyth- points already mentioned. thr, a. after "Meet the Feebles ts for those with mic blur of poly foam and fake fur. The all. Peter Jackson While it is a long way a strong stomach and a serlou',ly warped creature which ma4turbate4 while spy- (a ven· long way) from Feebleh to sense of huntor The film ts 40 off the ing on the bunnieh 0eenis unduly coarse Hobbits, he still fulfills our perceived beaten track that it make; Monty Python until we real,70 that it is hi~ elephantine need for crunch and splatter. He shows seem mainstream " © 1995 Jame~ nose which 1~ the erectile part of his that we are not so very far removed. in Berardinelli-http : //movie - anatomy.It'sjustenough di~tance from evolutionary term~. froin atime when reviews. colossus. net/mov - our own lives to keep us laughing in- there was only the hunter and the hunted ies/m/meet_feebles.html stead of squirming Thus the point th In both films. the main theme 1„ the At lea',t Berardinelli found part$ of made that we are a people given to ev- battle of good to overcome evil. with the movie "diabolically clever and ery Nort of exce~ and the audience 1, subplots featuring the possibility of true funny " ParK ofit are funny,:ind the film (in theory) able to accept Jack4on'$ con- love. and overcoming personal demons make'. +ome good points. At its core, tention because. perhap~. we see his vi- in order to become a whole. mature be- though . Meet the Feebles ~ a gro00-out sion a. that of an unfettered child playing. While the vision in Feeble., 11 Juve- movie. and a very entertaming one ifyou ing with hiuoyuather than as a sage nile and cynical. it ic at least interesting *hould happen to find your,~elf with a holding up the mirror to ourselves to ~ee where thi0 now re$pected dilec- bunch of drunken college friends one toi- came from. and there are a few good night with nothing else to do laughs along the way http://www.foreignfilms.com/films/5279.asp Kaase Meet the Feebles (1989) review by Justin Keywords: bizarre, offbeat, spoof i*YS,-3/*Sn#% =05 38 VIDEO REVIEW BROTHER BREAD, SISTER PUPPET New Video Release by Cinema Guild

Recent releases of pos>;ible interest to our readers include "Puppetry: Worlds of Imagination" (the wonderful documentary by Michael and . Joshua Malkin previously reviewed here)and "Brother Bread, Sister

. T p , 1.:• Puppet," a documentary about Bread and Puppet Theater. The latter covers one summer's Domestic Resurrection Circus at the theater's , home in Glover Vermont (1985 or 1986, I believe). Intercut with 1-* B scenes of the Circus and Pageant are interviews with company founder Peter Schuman, performers Paul Zaloom, John Bell, Trudi Cohen. Amy Trompetter and others. There are also shots ofa parade in NYC. a good look at the breadbaking so integral to the feeling of commun- c-*,4 : 72,4 + ion, or communalism, of the Circus iii it's heyday. "Brother Bread, Sister Puppet," (60 minutes, directed by Jeff Farber) is a warm look /r.-*~i ,:{g *S,f<36.y.1 at one of America's great events. It is also inescapably poignant, as we become even more acutely aware of how mitch we have lost declared the annual pageant over, a victim of its -I * since Schumann own success. For more inforilicition: Garry Crowdus, The CinemaGuild 1-800-723-5522 or contact them through their website: www.cinemaguild.corn

Future P.I. topics I1754 UPPET {NTER#1~ONAI»\ PUPPETRY INTERNATIONA welcomes submissions. Themes for upcoming issues include:

Spring 2004- ENDANGERED SPECIES: Puppettheaters around the world, some ancient some modern, which find themselves on the v rge of extinction.

Fall 2004- PIONEER WOMEN: Many of the great innovators of this '505 art form were women. We bring some of them out of obscurity. j

e-mail proposals for consideration to Editor: [email protected] ~'-f *9 1 -,/.0- PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL 39

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Join Us! . July 29-August 1, 2004 .· .

. 00 3 2004 . • .

. . 0

. .

"Puppets on .

the Ridge" . 0.

The Puppeteers of America '. 2004 Southeast Regional • I. ... Puppetry Festival, ..... Asheville, N.C. . e-mail Usa: . [email protected] 0 www.puppetsontheridge.com •.

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Spend a Week With Us - Have a Ufetime Experience- The Rumpelstiltskin Society presents PuppetFest MidWest

PuppetFest MidWest is an independent, annual puppetry festival that is presented, organized and financially supported by puppeteers as a gift to other puppeteers in the hope that it will inspire, strengthen and renew our commitment to Puppet Theatre. Tuesday, July 13- Sunday, July 18, 2004 Tuesday, July 12- Sunday, July 17,2005 North Central Missouri College, Trenton, Missouri Contact Information: Peter Allen & Debbie Lutzky Allen, Directors, PO Box 14, Jamesport MO 64648 Phone: (660) 684-6825 puppetfestival.org The purpose of this event is to promote, encourage and illustrate by example the traditional skills that are the building blocks of Good Puppet Theatre. 40 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL

NEW DIRECTIONS SERIES '03-'04 Center for Puppetry Arts Atlanta GA - www.puppet.org -

SHOWIIMES: UNIMA-USA brings you news and views of THURSDAY-SHIURDRY HI 8 P.M,, SUNDAY HI 5 P.M International Puppet Theater in more than 60 countries, offers discounts on special events, conferences and festivals: XPERIMENTAL promotes international friendship through puppetry. Bring the World's Oldest Theatre Into Your Life! PUPPETRY For membership information, call 404-873-3089 or write 1404 Spring Street NW, Atlanta GA 30309 THEATER (XPT)

,„1 11.,·i,-,n 51,166

Is Lao Tzu dreaming he's a puppet? Or is the puppet dreaming he's Lao Tzu? The answer, or perhaps more questions, await in Xperimental Puppetry Theater, better known as XPI Established as a workshop/performance forum to encourage new works and techniques, XPT has introduced thought-provoking pieces E6a ranging from the ethereal to the absurd. Cartoonish angst, accidental beauty, orchestrated hilarity. Yep, you'll see itall at XPT - THE forum for Xtreme Puppetry. MEMORY of the WHISPERED WORD No rules allowed. Downstairs Theater.

#1. VOICE of the TURTLEDOVE #> A motion picture by Warner Blake Aw Adapted from his performance work SOUPTALKS SEATTLE #441 I ** AN INTIMATE EPIC OF WAR. SEX & PUPPETS PRESENTED ON A TABLETOP ~ HAS NOW BEEN TRANSFERED TO THE SMALL SCREEN BY THE AUTHOR READ MORE: AngelArmsWorks.com/pstoo

FREE copy of PUPPET FESTIVAL -~ ~ with on-line order of MEMORY #1: available on VHS/$30 or DVD/$40 [INCLUDES FREE SHIPPING] .1 ES' 3'= AngelArmsWorks.com/pstoo/store.html photo: Bradford Clark What's new at the center for puppetry arts

The New Directions Series offers diverse performances for adults to enthrall the imagination and engage the mind. Join us for works ranging from the frat-party inspired The Spooky Puppet Horror Show 111, to the beautiful The Hans Christian Andersen Storybook (pictured at right). The 2003-04 season y t

also features four special performances by the Salzburg D Marionettes of Salzburg, Austria. fog

Shows for families feature classic literature and new v takes on old tales. American heroes spin tales taller g~ than a ten-gallon hat in American Ta// Ta/es. Dr. 2 Deadly Nightshade is threatening to take over the 2 General Botanical Hospital in The Plant Doctors f (pictured at left). Dragons, shoemakers, billy goats f and more round out the season.

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of Wonder, The hands-on Museum, Puppets: The Power More presents over 350 puppets from around the world. puppets are on display in the special exhibits, including right). Bhima, a hand puppet from India (pictured at puppets in the adult 2 Learn how to manipulate and make AN"/:21/gupri,- education classes.

CENTER FOR 1404 Spring Street NW • Atlanta, GA 30309-2820 Ticket Sales Office/ 404-873-3391 Administrative Office/ 404-873-3089 PUPPETRY For more information, visit online at: www.puppet.org [email protected] 4*~i Vincent Anthony, Executive Director Headquarters of UNIMA-USA 4,- L